A Tutorial on How Reliability Is Estimated within Structural Equation Models.

Capraro, Robert M.; Graham, James M.

This paper illustrates first how estimated Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) measurement error variances are actually estimates of score reliabilities. The major advantage of SEM over other analytic methods is that it accounts for measurement error. Score reliabilities are estimated as part of structural modeling, so that structural models test both substantive hypothesis and measurement models. The paper also demonstrates how changing the estimated reliabilities of the SEM observed variables not only changes estimated reliabilities, but can also change all the other parameters throughout the analysis. A heuristic data set is used to illustrate these changes. One appendix contains the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences syntax used for the illustration, and the other shows data from a previous study used for illustrative purposes. (Contains 4 tables, 6 figures, and 33 references.) (Author/SLD)